Having already visited preferred partners such as US President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, Poland's new president is in Germany, a country that Polish right-wing conservatives deeply mistrust.

While there, Karol Nawrocki is meeting both President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Both during his presidential election campaign and since his inauguration six weeks ago, Nawrocki has made no secret of his reservations toward Poland's western neighbor, which he alleges dominates the EU together with France — to the detriment of Poland.

Nawrocki demands war reparations

During a speech on September 1 to mark the 86th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Nawrocki reiterated his country's claims to war reparations from Germany. He also said that any future partnership between the two countries depends on resolving this issue.

"To build a partnership with our western neighbor based on the foundations of truth and good relations, we must finally settle the issue of reparations from the German state, which I unequivocally demand," he said at the Westerplatte Monument war memorial near Gdansk.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the opposition right-wing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, went one step further on September 1 and called Germany a "post-Nazi state" that had neither punished Nazi criminals nor compensated Nazi victims.

In September 2022, a Polish parliamentary commission estimated that Polish war damages amounted to 6.2 trillion zloty (approx. €1.5 trillion/$1.7 trillion).

Germany says matter is already settled

Poland's center-left government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been trying for two years to secure financial support for surviving victims of Nazi Germany, of whom there are an estimated 70,000. So far, it has been unsuccessful.

A recent survey showed that the majority of Poles (54%) support the demand for reparations. Nawrocki's spokesman Rafal Leskiewicz has confirmed that reparations will be on the agenda of the president's talks in Berlin.

Berlin, however, has rejected the demands for reparations payments. Knut Abraham, the German government's coordinator for German-Polish cooperation, has emphasized that the matter has already been legally settled, also pointing to the security cooperation between the two countries.

"Unlike in the past, where Poland was the victim, Germany and Poland now stand up for each other. And we must back this up both militarily and financially," Abraham told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland news agency.

Focus on security after drone attack

Security has become a priority issue after Russian drones breached Polish airspace last week.

Washington's disappointing response to the incursion was a "slap in the face" for Nawrocki, wrote the Polish online news platform ONET.

Unlike the US, Poland's European NATO partners — including Germany — responded swiftly to the provocation.

Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, extended its activities on NATO's eastern frontier, and used Eurofighter jets to monitor Polish airspace, doubling the number of aircraft from two to four.

Opportunity for German-Polish security partnership?

"Trump's maneuvering and the swift support from Europe should make Nawrocki think," Piotr Buras, head of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, told DW.

When asked whether he thought there is a chance for a German-Polish security partnership, Buras replied: "If not now, when?"

As supreme commander of the Polish army, Nawrocki, who has thus far built his security policy on a special relationship with the United States and President Trump, could change tack.

Political scientist Agnieszka Lada-Konefal, deputy director of the German Poland Institute, is, however, skeptical.

"Poland's right wing will not change its attitude to Germany because it does not allow itself to be driven by rational arguments but by political calculations," she said. "Anti-German rhetoric brings political advantages. It is worthwhile portraying the Germans as the bogeymen and to paint Germany's policies as suspect."

Normalization but no close relationship

While the election victory of Tusk's center-left coalition in October 2023 brought about a normalization of German-Polish relations after eight years of PiS rule in Warsaw, it did not bring the expected turnaround.

The change of government in Berlin after the election in February 2025 did not result in a breakthrough either.

The unilateral introduction of border checks by Germany in May and the Polish response have further poisoned relations.

During Germany's parliamentary election campaign, Chancellor Merz repeatedly emphasized that he viewed Poland as just as important a partner as France. After being sworn in early May, he visited Paris and Warsaw.

Four months later, however, at the opening of the Conference of Ambassadors at the German Foreign Ministry on September 8, he only spoke of the German-French axis.

'Poland weariness' in Berlin?

"I am seeing a degree of disappointment — even Poland weariness — in political and diplomatic circles in Germany," said Lada-Konefal. She added that Berlin is disappointed that for domestic reasons — in other words, out of fear of criticism from the opposition — the Polish government tends to avoid initiatives in Polish-German relations.

"The ball is now in the Polish court," she said. "Warsaw should take the initiative itself or at least respond positively to German offers, instead of showing a lack of interest."

Buras' assessment of the situation is even more stark: "The Tusk government is afraid of being described as pro-German by the opposition. This hinders new initiatives toward Berlin."

Nawrocki's predecessor, Andrzej Duda, who also hails from the right-wing conservative camp, sought good relations with the German president.

"Nawrocki will articulate expectations toward Germany more clearly than his predecessor because he speaks more strongly to right-wing voters than Duda did," said Lada-Konefal.

Neither a press conference nor statements are planned for Nawrocki's visit to Berlin. The fear of uncomfortable questions appears to have overruled the chance to show off Poland as a reliable partner.

This article was originally written in German.